VTA dump pipe. Good or bad idea?
 

Just want some feedback on VTA dump pipe setups. Abe from ARTech is going to be making my new manifold and downpipe and this is one of my options. I don't want to deal with fumes coming in the car, or having the exhaust make a mess of the engine bay. I don't know much about the VTA wastegate setups, so maybe I'm thinking things about it that aren't true.

Who here runs theirs like this and whats you opinion on it vs. a routed dump pipe?

Thanks :bigtu:

It's really loud on boost and it sucks to do any sort of street tuning with it since you can't hear shit when the wastegate opens.

It does make for easier downpipe fabrication, and when they are completely seperate like that you also have the benefit of the wastegate exhaust not making your exhaust flow turbulent. I've heard setups with small mufflers on the wastegate dumps and that helps significantly with these issues.

The other bad thing is the reports of people heating up the undersides of the cars with exhausts (like the fuel tanks and diffs). I think that's the only reason why I wouldn't run it.

I have mine dumped near the drivers side wheel, it doesn't seem that loud....doesn't bother me at all; nor have I had any problems with it.

I have mine dumped and I wouldn't have it any other way. Since the wastegate stays closed until you hit your boost target, you have to ask yourself is what kind of setup will you end up with? If it's a baby setup running low boost it would probably get annoying pretty quickly. If it's a monster setup running big boost then it's very easy to live with.

It needs to be braced if it's going to reach from the manifold down to the bottom of the car. The harmonics on mine broke the wastegate off the manifold, and that is the primary reason I ended up recirculating it later on.

Mines going vta again. I miss those fd days lol

The more you boost, the quieter it is.

Vash, check this:

SuperTrapp 344-2005 - SuperTrapp Disc-Only Mufflers - Overview - SummitRacing.com

Attached is a picture of a braced dump tube. Also, Corky stresses the use of expansion pipes (slip joints or flex tube) since the dump tube will heat up at very different rates vs the downpipe. I heard on a VW forum that heat wrapping the two pipes together will lessen the temperature difference, but who knows. Corky wasn't sure, but he thinks wrapping the two together will make failure the same or quicker.